Expel the “white-passing” male student who displayed the knife, fire CSULB Dean of Students Jeffrey Klaus and establish a Student Oversight Committee for Risk Assessment.
These demands have been made loud and clear over the past several weeks by a discontent independent student coalition known as We Are CSULB.
As the students’ voices get louder the administration is opening up more meetings to discuss certain concerns made by the members.
Cal State Long Beach President Jane Close Conoley is introducing a new policy of “inclusive excellence”. This set of existing and new “installments” is meant to address worries from both the new student coalition and faculty who may worry about weapons in class after the February incident.
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“We will offer faculty and staff information about classroom safety in the fall,” Conoley said. “Sometimes faculty are a little unsure if there’s a disruptive student [and wonder], ‘What do we do?’”
Carlos Guijarro, a member of the Chicano/a and Latino/a Studies Student Association and representative of the coalition, said the Feb. 25 knife incident prompted a conversation to address these issues of racial bias and campus safety.
“[We] can find out what steps the university can take to move forward with that,” Guijarro said.
In addressing that concern, Conoley said the model of inclusion is offering optional cultural sensitivity training in the fall, among other things.
“We’re asking each of the ethnic studies departments to contribute to that — both the faculty and students,” Conoley said.
She also plans on working out details with the coalition about having murals around campus to represent the multiple cultures and backgrounds of the campus community.
“We have so many wonderful cultures to celebrate,” Conoley said. “We have to think about who’s going to do it, how we’re going to fund it, what’s first, what’s second.”
Teri Yamada, chair of the CSULB Asian and Asian American Studies department, said Conoley was very open to constructive criticism when it came to talking about details of her specific department.
“That’s very positive and it’s never happened before,” Yamada said. “It’s pretty remarkable that she’s so open and forthcoming about it.”
Despite changes coming to CSULB in hopes of addressing issues made by members of the coalition and campus community, the administration is looking critically at the current weapons policy.
Conoley said the present weapons policy should be revised to fit with the policy that the city prosecutor suggested. This policy would allow no weapons, according to Conoley.
“We have to go through that and change our manual,” Conoley said. “I got feedback from the city attorney that our weapons policy, specific to knives, wasn’t appropriate; he was citing the education code and we were using the penal code.”
The California penal code states that carrying a knife with a blade of 2.5 inches or less on campus is legal.
She said that although not all demands can be met, she gives kudos to the students who make sure their voices are heard.
“I think it’ll be positive, you know,” she said. “I’m willing to work [with] the students and faculty and staff because they have issues as well.”